In their next bills, Delhiites will have to shell out more for electricity as the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC), on Thursday, revised power tariffs and approved a fuel surcharge of 7 per cent for BSES Yamuna Power limited (BYPl), 4.5 per cent for BSES Rajdhani Power limited (BRPl) and 2.5 per cent for Tata Power.
The new rates will be applicable from Saturday. Tata Power supplies electricity to North Delhi, BRPl to South and West Delhi and BYPl to East and central Delhi.
“After receiving petitions from the distribution companies we examined the issue thoroughly and have approved the new rates. We need to understand that it is not a quarterly hike, as from July 2013 to July 2014 we have approved power purchase adjustment charges only twice,” said PD Sudhakar, chairman of DERC. So far no fuel surcharge was applicable on power bills.
In July while, the power regulator had hiked power tariff in the city by up to 7.5 per cent for different segments of domestic consumers, it had withdrawn the Power Purchase Adjustment Cost (PPAC) of around 8 per cent till October, which had brought down power bills of consumers considerably.
The power regulator had introduced PPAC in 2012 to help the private power distribution companies recover additional cost on account of increase in coal and gas prices.
Power tariff was a major issue in the Assembly elections, with both the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claiming that once elected they would slash power tariff considerably.
While AAP had said it would bring down power bills by 50 per cent the BJP had claimed that it would reduce power tariff by 30 per cent.
The AAP was quick in condemning the move and said: “The DERC has failed to perform its duty as an independent regulator. The DERC should have waited for the CAG audit to be completed before revising tariff. The Central Government should have strongly conveyed its reservation to the DERC on the issue and should have advised the DERC against hiking the tariff.”